No sales rep can ever hope to be successful when motivation is lacking, and when a rep slows down, disengages or approaches quotas with indifference, sales managers have to act fast. Even a small dip in motivation can lead to a significant drop in revenue. Instead of stepping in to coach a struggling rep through a tough time, however, some sales leaders blame lack of motivation on sheer laziness. In some cases this could be true, but motivation killers are real, and they are debilitating. Even your most fiery rep can suffer a loss of motivation under certain circumstances.

Common Motivation Killers

Salespeople, by nature, are typically high-energy individuals. They are experts at accepting rejection with a smile, picking themselves up from failure, and moving on to the next challenge. However, nobody can survive in the cutthroat nature of sales without a little bit of help and support from management.

Anything that takes the wind out of someone’s sails will kill their motivation. While salespeople seem like they have a tough skin, they are still human at heart. Common motivational deflators include:

• A lack of recognition for success.
• Feeling as though their ideas are not being heard.
• Poor commission structure.
• Fear of failure.
• Micromanagement.
• Excessive, seemingly pointless meetings.



Companies that have a tendency to learn towards these pitfalls can crush the creative spirit of a sales team without even realizing it. Salespeople want to sell, and they want the freedom to do it in a way that allows them to use their specific skills and talents to close a deal. If Sales Managers want to spark motivation in their teams, they must promote a sales culture where reps have the ability to try new approaches, solve problems on their own, share their ideas with leaders and receive recognition when they achieve success.




When Company Culture Is To Blame

A negative sales team environment can be a motivation killer for many salespeople, but it is important to understand that being motivated to sell and working in an environment that isn’t conducive for selling, are two very different things.

When sales teams fall flat, it’s easy for managers to heap the blame directly onto the salespeople themselves. If the numbers aren’t there, it must be because of a lack of motivation, right? Not necessarily. If everyone on the team seems to lack fire, the issue is probably much larger and likely has more to do with problems such as:

• The unique selling proposition isn’t strong enough vs. the competition.
• They are not getting the tools they need to do their jobs.
• Pay scale and commission structure isn’t competitive.
• Lack of recognition for individual and team successes.
• They don’t believe in what they are selling.
• They do not feel a healthy sense of competition among the team.



Issues like these are the fault of the business, not the sales team. Reps have no control over the tools they are given, the products they are asked to sell, and the environment they work in. Salespeople just want to sell, and it is up to management to give them the tools they need in order to do that. Managers must be there to listen to questions, concerns or challenges and pay close attention to issues that come up more than once from more than one rep. They must also be willing to do something about those issues. Remember, one person can be written off as a complainer. A group with the same complaints probably has a case to make.




Stoke Motivational Fires Through Proactive Involvement

The key to overcoming a lack of motivation is to identify it early. If a strong rep suddenly hits a streak of bad luck or if someone fails to land a big fish they’ve been working for weeks or months, managers should step in early to coach the rep through the tough time before bad feelings impact the rep’s overall attitude and performance.

This means that Sales Directors must know their team’s pipeline inside and out. Knowing where everyone stands helps to focus attention where it is needed, when it is needed. Directors should be tuned in to what’s happening, and be ready to lend a hand as soon as the winds shift.

At the same time, sales leaders must cultivate an environment where one bad deal, one missed close or one streak of bad luck won’t have an adverse affect on the future. Again, this can be achieved through active engagement in the pipeline. When a Sales Director knows the status of a deal, knows when meetings are, touches base with reps afterwards and observers the rep in the field, they will have data to draw from when it comes time to evaluate the process. When a rep faces failure, managers should make time to talk it out, examining where things took a wrong turn and whether or not the change was ever in the rep’s control.

Sometimes clients do things that nobody understands, and good reps shouldn’t have to lose their motivation for their work because of one deal. Discuss the failure, evaluate what led to it, and develop a plan to overcome in. Keeping salespeople moving forward prevents them from getting mired down in a negative situation.